I add this page here at the suggestion of my cyber-friend Gabriel Borlean, at the disposal of those who want to send me a message without connection with one of the posts on this blog. The messages would have to still be added as comments to this page. This way I will be automatically informed about them and be able to respond promptly. Thanks.

Also, for more personale messages, you may write to me at danutm at(@) gmail.com.

Since they closed my Facebook account I am more limited in who and how I can contact folks. Bummer. But until I get it back, I wanted to continue the conversation with Daniel on this topic (Evangelism). My position is that what sets us (Protestants and neoProtestants) apart from RCC and OC is our emphasis on the Gospel-Evanghelia … thus Evangelical is a proper adjective to carry as a member of a confession/tradition/denomination that is Protestant, imho. What the term entails and comprises … may be very diff. from person to pastor.

Daniel’s blog is on my blogroll in the Protestants section. Here is the link:http://dmthinktank.wordpress.com/
However, I imagine what he will answer. ‘Evangelicals’ in the Church of Scotland tend to be mere fundmentalists. That is why, it seems to me, my son tries to distinguish himself from them, and rightly so. He’s seen enough of what fundamentalism can do in Romania.
My situation is different. Having joined a denomination that is affected by a liberal mess, I prefer to be in the minority. In fact, I have been a minority all my life, so it’s my natural smell now. 🙂

I totally understand what you are saying and writing Danut. It is the sarcasm of such limiting terms “liberal” or “conservative” that used to be used in political arenas, now are also used as labels in the religious sphere.

As your thoughtful explanation shows, it is most important to realize WHAT the term means in the context and by the person who uses it.

That is why when someone uses labels to describe themselves (some circumstances and shortage of time necessitate) I try to ask what the term means for a person.

For example, I want to consider myself a Follower-of-Christ and an Ecumenist who happens to serve and worship in a liturgical Lutheran local church.

Just the pure use of these terms means that I prefer
1) “follower-of-Christ” over Christian (in the American cultural context);
2) Ecumenist over Protestant because my Christianity should strive for the unity that existed in the “one holy catholic & apostolic Church” of the 1st millenium and as we profess in the Creed;
3) “liturgical Lutheran local church” because that is the denomination and worship style that I feel most comfortable with, but it is THE LEAST important of the 3 descriptions for me.

Danut, mi-ar face placerea sa scriu un articol pt. blogul acesta. Please “keep my feet to the fire” on this project, as I am quite busy these next 2 weeks and I may forget. Please remind me again in the near future … gabriel.borlean@gmail.com

Danut, here is a story that might be of interest to you
“Nailing the Anglican Timeline” http://www.getreligion.org/?p=25683 (from GetReligion.org a Christian blog ” site about how the mainstream press struggles to cover religion.”

The Association for the Philosophy of Judaism invites all interested parties to participate in an online symposium on Saul Smilansky’s paper “A problem about the morality of some common forms of prayer” (Ratio 2012 XXV: 207-15).

Opening comments have been made by Professor Scott Davison (Morehead State) and Professor Smilansky

Hello, Danut! Mike Morrell and I really appreciate your blog, and think you’d be an excellent candidate for our Speakeasy Blogger Network. Do you like to review off-the-beaten path faith, spirituality, and culture books? Speakeasy puts interesting books in your hands at no charge to you. You only get books when you request them, and it’s free to join. Sign up here, if you’d like: http://thespeakeasy.info

Hello, Danut – I check you blog from time to time and have very much enjoyed your perspective over the past few years – somehow found a link to your blog in my Emerging Church internet wanderings. I found myself migrating out of +30 years of US Evangelicalism, not on the road to Canterbury – though I was attracted in that direction for a while. My life has been punctuated by Episcopalians who have been kind to me, and then there is N.T. Wright… but I could not affirm the 39 Articles – had major problems with all of Western theology except for Wright (because his is actually basically pre-schism). I was also not interested in returning to the Roman Catholic church where I was raised. Orthodoxy came at me out of left field, and except for a couple of things I had to work through, every time I turned around and found out something new about Orthodox theology, I found myself saying, “I already believe that…” I was received on Pentecost 2009.

Having read that you have some connection to Celtic Christianity, I thought you might be interested. I have met Fr Seraphim and find him to be a lovely person. He is quite busy and can’t keep his blog very current right now, but when you get to Britain again I’m sure he would welcome you very heartily and really enjoy speaking with you, especially in limbra romana 🙂

Hi, Dana. Are you Romanian?
Thanks for stopping by. I have many friends whi browse through here, and who usually do not comment – they are not the ‘commenting’ kind – but I am glad some find by rumbling helpful.
As you probably found out, I did a PhD in Orthodox theology, and I usually ‘blame’ Orthodoxy for turning Anglican. I must confess I was never tempted to become Orthodox. I don;t have the staff Orthodox people are made of. I am structurally opposed to the ultra-conservatism that Orthodox people usually manifest – though there are exceptions; Frank Schaeffer is one of them. I am not fan of mildew – I do not believe that things – language, artefacts, doctrines, liturgies, are better because they are old. I do not see the connection. I am also an arch-enemy of philetism, a heresy that haunts Orthodoxy wherever it dominates. And much more.
Yet, I have deep appreciation for academic Orthodox theology in general and for certain aspects in Orthodox spirituality, with the exception of its inherent impression that if one is serious with spirituality they have to become monastics, or they will never be fully committed. This is absolute rubbish for me.
I do not know Fr Seraphim, though I have many Orthodox friends in England (Oxford and Cambridge) and in Scotland. As I have a fascination for Celtic spirituality and Iona (I have been four time there), of he settles on Mull, I might visit him. My son lives in Glasgow (he is a minister in the Church of Scotland) and I will have many opportunities to do it.
All the best to you from Iasi, Romania.
PS WE may communicate by email also, as this is a space for more public discussions. God bless!

Thanks for the reply! No, I am not Romanian, but I am a long-time folk dancer and the Romanian, Bulgarian and Macedonian dances are my favorites. I was a German major in college and studied in Germany in ’76-’77. During semester break I made a trip of a big circle through northern (at the time) Yugoslavia, up the middle of Romania through Brasov to Cluj and then to Budapest and Vienna. I was going to go to Bucharest, but that was the year of the big earthquake -it happened while I was in Belgrade – and thought it best to avoid the city at that time.

Interestingly, I “blame” Wright and his historical studies for me becoming Orthodox… I didn’t go to Orthodoxy just because it was old. I also see the damage pietism brings (in Orthodoxy or anywhere else), and agree with you that monasticism is very often wrongly viewed as the only committed way – though those who have such a view ignore the bulk of monastic teaching on the matter! I was searching for a holistic theology, and the more I learned about Orthodoxy, the more I thought, “I already believe that…” I rattled on a lot of doors, and when I opened that one, I found the Lord. There is really no other reason to go through any doorway.

I hope you do meet Fr Seraphim. I think you would get along very well. I recently met Church of Scotland pastor Robert Calvert and his wife Lesley – their son is a teacher in a nearby community – lovely people.

Thanks, Dana, for your beautiful testimony. I have many friends, some very close, who became Orthodox, and we still keep very close ties, unless they became fanatics. Then I stay away from them, as I stay away from Protestant (or Catholic) fundamentalists.
So, you were in Romania in 1977? Or during the next large earthquake?
In the mean time, I listened to a video recording of Fr Seraphim and I liked it. I also asked a friend of mine who is a Romanian Orthodox priest in Edinburgh and he confirmed Fr Seraphim is a good men. I also found out that he quite a gifted poet before becoming a monk. I would certainly try to meet him one day, either in Oxford, where he studies now, and where I have many friends, or on Mull, on one of my regular trips to Iona.
Wow, you know Robert Calvert! He is a close friend. My son, Daniel, did his first church placement in the Scottish church in Rotterdam, which Robert was pastoring then. We also did some years ago a book launch on urban missions – one of his passions, at the Orthodox Seminary in the University here. He later did a course on urban missions there.
By the way, where do you live?
And finally, if you want to see some of the work I did on Orthodoxy and other topics, go a search on my name on academia.edu. You may find some things, including my doctoral work, which might interest you.

You are very kind, Danut – that and your wide-ranging Christian interests keep me coming back to your blog 🙂

I was in Romania in early March 1977. The day of the earthquake I was actually in Belgrade. The people in the youth hostel where I was staying said they felt it, but I been on the train all night with little sleep and after that walked several miles uphill to the hostel. I was exhausted, and I slept for about 20 hours and so slept through the earthquake. Instead of going to Bucharest, I changed directions at Craiova and took the train north that way. I stayed in Fagaras (I know a dance from there, it was a sort of pilgrimage…), Brasov and Cluj.

I live in Ukiah, California, about 2 hours north of San Francisco, and not too far from the coast, where I grew up. I went to college at Humboldt State University in Arcata. The Calverts’ son teaches at the High School in Potter Valley, to the northeast of Ukiah. You should be able to find the towns easily on your favorite map application. I only met the Calverts once, when they came to my book group with one of the other members, who invited them to come to the group having met them only the night before. It was so enjoyable talking with them.

Very interesting, indeed.
I will be coming to California mid June, but I will stay around LA and San Diego. I hacve some family memers living in Hayward, near San Francisco, but I have not been back there after 1991, when I have seen them.
Alll the best to you.